Don’t look now, but Illinois baseball is on a roll.

Last time, I wrote about Dan Hartleb’s squad, it was struggling to find consistency before spring break. The pitching would be lights out, and the bats would be silent. The bats would come alive, and the pitching would falter. Illinois posted just a 7-9 overall record heading into the home opener at Illinois Field.

Now, we’re already halfway through the season. In the last three weeks, everything seems to be clicking for the Illini. They’ve won 10 out of 12 games and gotten off to a 5-1 start in Big Ten play, good for second place in the conference standings. So, what’s sparked the recent stretch of solid play?

Quality pitching

The Illini pitching staff has been highly touted all season, and it’s performing up to expectations. Kevin Duchene’s stellar 1.70 ERA leads the rotation, and Ryan Castellanos’ impressive 3.18 is the highest ERA among any Illini pitcher who has logged at least 30 innings on the season. Starter John Kravetz was named Big Ten Pitcher of the Week on Tuesday after pitching eight scoreless innings and striking out seven in Sunday’s 1-0 win over Northwestern. If the Illini want to sustain their momentum, it’s huge for them to get a dominant performance like the one Kravetz turned in when their offense stalls.

Overcoming adversity

The Illini have battled through adversity during their run, the scope of which has ranged from inconvenient to emotional.

Three games (Illinois State, Missouri and Eastern Illinois) have been postponed or cancelled in the last three weeks, all of which could be considered rivalry matchups. The changes in scheduling haven’t affected the Illini during their winning stretch, as they were victorious in both post-rainout games to date.

A forearm injury has plagued No. 1 starter Duchene over the last several weeks, and he’s still listed as day-to-day. The rest of the pitching staff has picked up the slack, having only allowed 2.3 runs per game since Duchene’s last appearance on March 14.

Sadly, head coach Dan Hartleb’s father passed away on April 5. Hartleb had missed several games since the end of March to be with his ailing father, leaving associate head coach Eric Snider to run the team in his absence. Sophomore shortstop Adam Walton told The Daily Illini that Sunday’s 1-0 victory over Northwestern was for Hartleb and his late father.

Soft start to the schedule

I don’t want to take anything away from the Illini’s hot streak, because they’re playing great baseball. They took three of four games from Xavier, and the Musketeers are no slouches at 16-14 overall. But the 5-1 conference start came at the expense of two of the conference’s worst teams, Purdue and Northwestern. The Boilermakers and Wildcats currently have an abysmal combined record of 11-44. The schedule gets tougher from here on out, headlined by a three-game series with first-place Indiana on April 25 at Illinois Field. 

If the Illini can maintain this high level of play against the top of the league, look for them to make some noise in the postseason once Duchene gets healthy.

Alex is a sophomore in AHS. He can be reached at [email protected] and @aroux94.